Head space - am I ruining the brew? Help !

[jeff_brew]

I have my first four gallons racked and in the frige.
I had not read anything about head space until now, but in all four
gallons I have at least 2 cups gone. I have not added campden or sorbate yet and frankly I'm just not sure what to do next. Add apple juice to about 1" from the top and also camden and sorbate to stop the yeast? My thought was to let this stuff mellow for a few weeks, but I'm guessing this air space might cause bad taste. Help ! I don't want to mess up my first brews.

 

[friarsmith]

Cider is usually forgiving, so don't stress too much.

Did you check the gravity before racking? That will determine next steps regarding sorbate or topping up.

If the gravity was >1.000 then your cider will probably ferment some more and produce C02, so a bit of headspace is not a problem. In this case, you can wait a few weeks before adding anything to stop fermenatation.

If you didn't check gravity before racking and the cider is now cold, probably the safest thing to do is top it up a bit with more juice and wait a few weeks. Any new sugar introduced should ferment out slowly in the cold cider. Then add the sorbate or campden.

And, well, given my experience with cider, if you do nothing at all and bottle it in a month it will most likely be fine

 

[jeff_brew]

Cider is usually forgiving, so don't stress too much.

Did you check the gravity before racking? That will determine next steps regarding sorbate or topping up.

If the gravity was >1.000 then your cider will probably ferment some more and produce C02, so a bit of headspace is not a problem. In this case, you can wait a few weeks before adding anything to stop fermenatation.

If you didn't check gravity before racking and the cider is now cold, probably the safest thing to do is top it up a bit with more juice and wait a few weeks. Any new sugar introduced should ferment out slowly in the cold cider. Then add the sorbate or campden.

And, well, given my experience with cider, if you do nothing at all and bottle it in a month it will most likely be fine

Thanks very much for your advice. I'd better check my notification settings as I didn't get an email for your update.
I took two of the four gallons out of the frige and was going to take the other two out today...not knowing what that will cause. My thinking was that the warmth should get the remaining yeast going a little bit just enough to produce some more CO2 to take up the head space as you indicated. Not sure if I should have left it in the frige. I'll update the SG readings that I did. I put them in a different post that was not getting any updates.

 

[jeff_brew]

Cider is usually forgiving, so don't stress too much.

Did you check the gravity before racking? That will determine next steps regarding sorbate or topping up.

If the gravity was >1.000 then your cider will probably ferment some more and produce C02, so a bit of headspace is not a problem. In this case, you can wait a few weeks before adding anything to stop fermenatation.

If you didn't check gravity before racking and the cider is now cold, probably the safest thing to do is top it up a bit with more juice and wait a few weeks. Any new sugar introduced should ferment out slowly in the cold cider. Then add the sorbate or campden.

And, well, given my experience with cider, if you do nothing at all and bottle it in a month it will most likely be fine

These are the readings I took.
BATCH 1 - M02 - 12 oz date syrup
"Sgrav-1.080
PABV - 11
% Sugar - 20.5
------- 2nd reading - 8 days
Sgrav - 1.000+
PABV - 0+
% Sugar -0+
========
ABV - 11%"

Batch 2 - M02 - 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
"Sgrav-1.085
PABV - 10.5
% Sugar - 20
---- 2nd reading - 8 days
Sgrav - 1.000+
PABV - 0+
% Sugar -0+
========
ABV - 10.5

3rd batch S-04 (still bubbling today and much more yeast on bottom)
- 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
SG-1.085
PABV - 10.5
% Sugar - 20
----- 2nd Reading - 7 days
SG - 1.029
PABV - 3.5
% Sugar - 7
=======
ABV - 7

4th Batch - S-04 (still bubbling today and much more yeast on bottom)
12 oz date syrup
SG-1.085
PABV - 10.5
% Sugar - 20
------2nd reading - 7 days
SG - 1.010
PABV -1.25
% Sugar - 2.5
======
9.25% abv"

 

[jeff_brew]

I'm into my 8th thru 12th gallon. I've made some that tasted pretty good, others that are not so great. Part of what has made my brew a little peculiar is having used coconut sugar. It is a bit of a noticeable flavor that competes a bit with the apple flavor. It's not that it's bad; it's just different. The reason I'm using odd sugars is that I'm on a paleo diet. Any alcohol is really cheating, but I'm trying to stay with lower glycemic index sugars. I'm guessing someone might reply that the sugars get mostly eaten up by the yeast to produce alcohol anyway. But, I'll just try this for now including honey and some of the concentrated frozen apple juice. I do like that having added it makes for a nice strong abv even after adding some extra juice at the end. I use my sodastream to add carbonation. Cider behaves very differently than water though. I only fill up about 1/4 to maybe 1/2 the quart bottle because of all the foam that it makes with cider. But, the end result is quite good. I like to put the cider in the freezer for awhile and get it really cold, then fizz it up. I've really enjoyed about an 8 to 9% abv brew. It's refreshing. I also tried some of that apple extract for flavoring but I don't care for that stuff at all. It tastes artificial to me; almost like drinking something that has a non-sugar sweetener in it. Guess that's all to report for now. I'm just learning by gallon.

 

[BILTIT]

What yeast did you use on those batches?

 

[jeff_brew]

I used four different yeasts and I can't tell quite yet if there are any that are preferable. There are some that were "yeasty" tasting even after rack'ing and after several weeks, while others were not. Problem is that I put my details in a spreadsheet and I mixed up the row numbers with the batch numbers. The heading was row 1, while batch #1 was row 2. I could kick myself, but it's not the end of the world. I should have just used a Word table and I'll be converting to that shortly. Anyway, thus far I've used Mangrove Jack's M02, Safale S-04, Nottingham and Windsor. I can tell you that the one I talked about that I enjoyed most recently was Nottingham. I have a batch that got mixed up in the snafu above that I think tasted better. So, I don't know what the yeast was nor the sugar, but it was either coconut sugar or date syrup. I've also never had a bubble over til today, and the culprit is the one I put 4 oz of honey into. Do yeasties go nuts over honey?

 

[BILTIT]

I recently tried mangrove jack cider yeast, very pleasently impressed.

Why i ask is that many yeast have different alcohol levels they can attain, hence how much sugar is leftover.

 

[jeff_brew]

I recently tried mangrove jack cider yeast, very pleasently impressed.

Why i ask is that many yeast have different alcohol levels they can attain, hence how much sugar is leftover.

Thanks for the info. I have not made a study of the yeast's top abv, but I have been taking notice of it. I'd hoped that I could eventually produce a higher abv cider that was tasty. I like the 10% Angry Orchard "Iceman" except that it's a bit sweet for my taste and I also like a bit more effervescence. I also don't like extremely dry cider. Woodchuck just came out with a semi-dry that I like. I think I'll be able to get a good 9% pretty easily though and maybe 10. That would please me to no end since Iceman is about $14 where I live. I like some of the usual 5 to 6% ciders, but frankly I like more robust abv, fizz and coldness of the drink than might be typical.